Well, dear readers, this week’s Unseemly Trivia Contest was our most popular and, apparently, most difficult. We ultimately had a few High Winners, but not without clarifications and clues. I always think I’m being perfectly clear when I come up with these little questions, but I will endeavor to be even clearer so that our handy-dandy dear reader players won’t need clues and clarifications. I shall reveal all in just a few moments. Do you suppose “all” wants to be revealed in just a few moments? Did it ever occur to me that “all” might be modest? Here I am, ready to reveal “all” without even taking into account how “all” feels about it. That is simply heinous (heinous, do you hear me?) and I should flog myself like Judge Turpin whilst wearing leather pants. Fortunately, I don’t own any leather pants and I refuse to flog myself in anything other than leather pants, so I guess I will have to forego the flogging. What the hell am I talking about? Oh, yes, soon I will reveal all and all is just going to have to deal with it as best as all can.
I just saw the latest galley of my very own novel and I’m happy to report that outside of just a handful of minor errors that it finally looks great and I think it will be put to bed by week’s end. Mr. Mark Bakalor is finally going to get around to adding two brand spanking new sections to the site – one for The First Nudie Musical and one for my novel, Benjamin Kritzer. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too? It should happen in the next couple of weeks, so keep your eyes peeled (no mean feat). If the new sections are not ready in the next couple of weeks, Mr. Mark Bakalor will not be foregoing the flogging, let me tell you that. First of all, isn’t Mr. Mark Bakalor just the type to have a pair of leather pants lying around?
I took some new-fangled prescription allergy pill (can’t remember the name) that someone thought I should try, but I must say it is not agreeing with me. I feel every thing and everyone should agree with me and yet these pills have the temerity to disagree with me and, in fact, to make me feel queasy. Back to the Actifed tomorrow.
Last night I watched a documentary on DVD, about the great film director, Akira Kurosawa. I really like many of his films and was looking forward to this documentary. It has its moments, but I’m afraid it’s one of these arty and pretentious things that appear to be more about the makers of the documentary than Mr. Kurosawa. The nice bits are the readings from Mr. Kurosawa’s Something Like and Autobiography, read by Mr. Paul Scofeld. Mr. Sam Shepard, who narrates, is a curious choice in many ways, mostly because he is a boring speaker. The documentary has several nice clips, but totally ignores several of my favorite Kurosawa films, including one of my top five – High and Low. Anyway, one does learn a bit about the man, and he’s an interesting study.
Well, I know you’re all ready to skip ahead anyway, to find out the answer to our handy-dandy Unseemly Trivia Contest question, so we all may as well click on the Unseemly Button below because all, who it turns out is not modest, is waiting to be revealed.
As I said, we finally had a few High Winners who answered the question correctly, but only one High Winner answered it correctly right off the bat, without any clarifications or clues. The question was:
One musical.
Two movie stars.
One up-and-coming choreographer/director in the cast who, shortly after doing this musical, would work with someone several times who would create a hugely successful musical on Broadway.
One co-star who would die during the performance of another musical on Broadway.
Name the musical, the two movie stars who were in it, the up-and-coming choreographer/director cast member, who the up-and-coming choreographer/director cast member worked with several times, and the co-star who died during a performance of another musical on Broadway.
The answer to the various components of the question are:
One musical: Anyone Can Whistle
Two movie stars: Angela Lansbury and Lee Remick
One up and coming choreographer/director: Alan Johnson
The person he worked with several times who would go on to create a hit Broadway musical: Mel Brooks – Mr. Johnson choreographed the film of The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, etc. and directed Mr. Brooks and Anne Bancroft in the remake of To Be or Not to Be.
The co-star who died during a performance of another musical on Broadway: Arnold Soboloff, during a performance of the Sandy Duncan revival of Peter Pan.
I’m happy and surprised to say that no one got the answer to the tie-breaker question, which I thought everyone would get. That question was:
Who is the only musical director in the history of the Broadway musical, to have his name used in a show (at least consciously)? Lehman Engel, a character in A Class Act, doesn’t count.
And the answer is:
Herbert (Herbie) Greene (who, ironically, was the musical director and conductor for the above-mentioned Anyone Can Whistle). Mr. Greene was the musical director and conductor of The Most Happy Fella, and someone Mr. Frank Loesser liked very much. So much, in fact, that he put his name into “The mail is coming” section of the title song, The Most Happy Fella. The postman sings:
“Van Pelt? Your sister had a baby girl!
Greene? Herbie Greene, say, who’s Pearl?”
The High Winners are Freedunit, Michael Shayne and Robert Armin. Our Highest Winner is the dear reader who answered correctly right off the bat – Mr. Steve Gurey. If Mr. Steve Gurey will send us his handy-dandy address, he will receive a sparkling prize.
I ran into my pal, Jim Ritz, at our benefit the other night, and Mr. Ritz was kind enough to bring me several reissue CDs he’s produced for Collector’s Choice, including several Joanie Sommers albums. I was lucky enough to produce Joanie’s last new album, back in 1990 or so, for Bay Cities. She’s really wonderful, and these Warner Bros. albums from the 60s are great. I fell in love with her voice the second I heard her first big hit song, Johnny Get Angry. I ran out and bought the 45 of it and played it until it would play no more. I still love that song, as politically incorrect as it may be. The gentleman who wrote it, Mr. Sherman Edwards, would go on to write the classic Broadway musical, 1776. If you haven’t heard Joanie, give the Johnny Get Angry album a try – it’s just delightful, and she does many standards on it, too, like A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and Little Girl Blue. She also does a wonderful rendition of One Boy from Bye Bye Birdie, and a terrific vocal of the theme from A Summer Place.
Donald has an encore radio show up now, It’s a Small World, which he’d gotten a lot of requests. And hopefully Donald will stop by and post all about his trip and what and who he saw. Oh, and I discovered a new Meltz and Ernest song whilst rifling through some sheet music. It’s quite catchy – When I Eat a Cherry I Get Cheery is the title, and I’ll be printing the wonderful lyric right here in these notes tomorrow.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, see the people I see, drive the places I drive, and so on and so forth and also so forth and so on. We had a paltry amount of posts yesterday (and a really good topic of discussion, too) so let’s make up for it today, otherwise you shall all have to flog yourselves like Judge Turpin, whilst wearing leather pants. And if there aren’t a plethora of posts you will not be forgoing the flogging, dear readers, leather pants or no leather pants. Today’s topic of discussion: Yesterday we talked about our favorite standard pop vocalists. Today, let’s talk about our favorite rock and roll vocalists, but those from the innocent days – pre The Beatles. I was very taken with many of those vocalists and some of those records remain all-time favorites. So, I’ll start: Ricky Nelson (especially Poor Little Fool – a song I totally am smitten with), the already mentioned Joanie Sommers (she did have several rock and roll hits, so I’m including her), Connie Francis (especially Where the Boys Are), Skeeter Davis (The End of the World), Brain Hyland, Bill Haley, Fats Domino, Tommy Edwards, Elvis (all his pre 1960 records), and others I’m sure you’ll remind me of. And how could I leave off Johnny Mathis and Matt Monro in yesterday’s discussion? Your turn.